1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to prophylactic and therapeutic devices for preventing and rehabilitating injury to the back of a human being and, more particularly, is directed towards a jacket in combination with a plurality of novel self-contained electrical measurement devices mounted thereon which is intended to measure the angle of tilt of a plurality of portions of the human spine during an act of leaning.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many factors which can contribute to back injury. One prominent factor associates back injury with the physiological failure that can occur during the straightening or unbending of the back in the course of lifting. To be sure, there are many other factors which can contribute to back injury, such as twisting or jerking. Such factors, however, are believed to simply compound the adverse stresses which originate in the bending associated with leaning.
As yet, very little development has taken place in the area of prophylactic devices intended to train an individual to conduct himself in such a manner so as to effectively prevent back injury from occurring. Such a device, if widely utilized, would obviously be extremely useful.
The development of flexural rehabilitation devices for use by individuals with injured backs has also been quite limited. The closest prior art United States patents in this general area of which I am aware include Hall U.S. Pat. No. (3,608,541), Palmer U.S. Pat. No. (3,670,320), and Verhaeghe U.S. Pat. No. (3,582,935). The devices described in the cited patents are, however, quite limited regarding the amount of information they provide. For example, the Hall patent describes a vest-like jacket which comprises a cable that lies along a column adjacent the spine of the wearer. When tensioned as a result of the bending of the wearer's back to a poor posture position, the cable actuates a buzzer by means of the closing of a pair of contacts.
The Palmer and Verhaeghe patents similarly illustrate belt-like posture improving devices which are designed to encircle the waist of the user. If the user allows his stomach muscles to sag or expand, additional tension is placed on the belt segments that results in an electrical circuit being completed to sound an alarm to warn the user that he is standing with incorrect posture.
Each of the foregoing devices is rather limited in its applicability to either prophylactic or rehabilitative programs, in that the only useful information provided by such devices occurs when the wearer slips into a "bad" posture. The devices do not provide any readily measurable or quantitative output indication by means of which the posture of two subjects could be compared, and do not provide any indication of the degree of "good" posture or "bad" posture of the wearer.
It therefore may be appreciated from the foregoing that a device which is intended to be useful as both a rehabilitative and prophylactic tool should preferably provide output information in a substantially continuous fashion, such that the relative flexural conduct of the subject may be monitored, and corrective action taken, on a continuous basis.
Furthermore, such a device should be designed to enable the output readings of a particular individual's flexural conduct to be standardized and thus easily compared with the output readings of a well-known standard, in order to permit mass standardization and utilization, as well as provide a universal tool for the prescribing physician and therapist.